Primary school was reported to have arbitrarily collected funds to repair the school yard, the school affirmed that it did not collect any kind of funds.

Parents "complain" about fees at the beginning of the school year

Sharing with Dan Viet newspaper reporter, a parent whose child studies at Ho Van Thanh Primary School (District 12, Ho Chi Minh City) said that he is struggling to pay the first fees of the year.

“I have two children studying at Ho Van Thanh School. At the beginning of the year, I had to pay a total of about 7,300,000 VND for both of them. Meanwhile, I only earn 6,000,000 VND a month. If I pay all the tuition fees, I will have no money left for living expenses. I don’t understand why the total fees at the beginning of the year this school year are higher than last year. Last year, I only had to pay more than 2,000,000 VND,” said this parent.

Ho Van Thanh Primary School (District 12) was reported by parents for arbitrarily collecting funds to repair the school yard, in addition to many other unreasonable charges. Photo: Nguyet Minh

Another parent reported that at the beginning of the school year, there were too many fees. From tuition fees for compulsory subjects to fees for elective subjects, there were also class funds, school funds, scholarship funds, and many other expenses.

“My child’s class has to pay 200,000 VND to the school’s parent fund, 100,000 VND to the scholarship fund, and 300,000 VND to the class movement support fund. Collecting expenses such as 20,000 VND/month for cleaning and 162,000 VND/term/student for buying Nhi Dong Newspaper is unnecessary in my opinion,” this parent shared.

Notably, many parents said that the school lacked transparency and arbitrarily used funds under the name of the Parents' Association to repair the school yard, while these parents were not notified beforehand.

Parents are informed that each person must pay a minimum of 300,000 VND to renovate the playground. Parents who have 2 children studying at the school must pay 150,000 VND for each child.

In addition, Ho Van Thanh Primary School was also reported to have arbitrarily arranged first graders into Math - Science classes (according to information from parents, Math - Science classes have higher tuition fees than regular classes) without the parents' consent. Along with that, they let the students keep their classmates in this class.

The school affirmed that it did not arbitrarily collect funds to repair the schoolyard.

Responding to Dan Viet reporter, Ms. Tran Thi Thu Thao - Principal of Ho Van Thanh Primary School affirmed that the school does not collect any funds called class fund, school fund, or scholarship fund.

Regarding the renovation of the school yard, Ms. Thao said that she had consulted the renovation plan with the Department of Education and Training of District 12. Ms. Thao emphasized that the funding must ensure the principles of voluntariness, publicity, transparency, no average level, no minimum level.

Specifically, Ms. Thao informed that she had a meeting with the Parents' Association in the summer to agree on renovating the yard. The Parents' Association agreed on this issue.

In addition, for elective subjects, the school does not require parents to register their children for school. For parents who have already registered because they do not understand the nature of the subject, they can meet with the teacher to resolve the problem.

The school always creates conditions to arrange the schedule of elective subjects reasonably (early in the first or last period) for the convenience of parents to pick up and drop off their children.

"Regarding the placement of first graders in Math - Science classes, the school has surveyed the needs of parents before arranging classes, there is no such thing as arbitrary arrangement. Letting students repeat a grade in the same class does not affect the quality of the class at all. Math - Science classes and regular classes all have the same curriculum," Ms. Thao affirmed.

"Regarding the payment for cleaning the classroom of 20,000 VND/month and buying Children's Newspaper of 162,000 VND/term/student, it is all voluntary, not forced on the classes," the principal added.

However, after receiving the principal's response, many parents still expressed dissatisfaction and had many questions. Dan Viet reporters will continue to report on the incident.

Source: https://danviet.vn/truong-tieu-hoc-bi-phan-anh-tu-y-thu-quy-de-sua-san-truong-truong-khang-dinh-khong-thu-loai-quy-nao-20241023130504839.htm